Drier



May 13, 1941. w c GLQVER, JR 2,241,701. .v

DRIER Filed July 9, 1938 3 ShOQtS-ShGBt 1 INVENTOR my C G/over; J/.- 7 %6ME ATTORNEY May 13, 1941.

w. c. GLOVER, JR 2,241,702

DRIER Filed July 9, 1938 s Sheds-Sheet 2 40 4/ f 39 I A 3.5

2 Z7 Z4 36 a II I, II III I INVENTOR ATTORNEY W/lli m C Glorec Jr: MW

May 13, 1941. w. c. GLovER, JR 2,241,702

DRIER Filed July 9 1938 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR Will/ha; (i G/oven JI:

ATTORNEY Patented May 13, 1941 DRIER William C. Glover, Jr., Raytown, Mo., assignor to Cleaners Specialties, Inc., Kansas City, Mo., a corporation of Missouri Application July 9, 1938, Serial No. 218,461

5 Claims.

This invention relates to a garment drier particularly for use by dry cleaners, laundries, and similar establishments, for the drying and semifinishing of garments, such as dresses, coats, and the like.

The principal object of the invention is to provide a simple and relatively inexpensive device of this character for securing the skirt portion of a garment and for blowing heated air into the interior thereof to substantially distend and shape the garment during drying thereof.

It is also an important object of the invention to provide a drier of this character with a garment carrier that is equipped with a plurality of garment suspending and supporting means that are alternately movable to and from drying position so that one garment may be applied while another garment is being dried.

It is a further object of the invention to provide an improved means for directing heated air into the garment and equipped with improved clamping means forsecuring the garment garments removed and showing the garment carrier in an intermediate position.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged section through the base of the drier and one of the nozzles on the garment carrier.

Fig. 4 is a section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a detail perspective View of the base of the drier showing. the garment carrier removed therefrom.

Fig. 6 is a detail perspective view of one of the clamps for anchoring the skirt portion of a garment to one of the nozzles.

Fig. 7 is a sectional view through a part of the nozzle showing the clamp in side elevation.

Fig. dis a detail perspective view of'a portion of the nozzle guard and air directing nozzle, particularly illustrating attachment of the guard.

Fig. 9 is a detail perspective view of one of the garment securing clips thatis attached to the guards.

Referring more in detail to the drawings:

I designates a garment drier constructed in accordance with the present invention, and which includes a base section 2 in the form of a housing having oppositely arranged side walls 34 and 5-6 connected together at the corners and reinforced at the bottom by an anglemember 1. The upper edges of the side walls are reinforced along their inner sides by an angle 8, having an inwardly directed flange 9 for supporting a top or cover plate Ill. The cover plate It has a central opening I I through which a blast of heated air is discharged, as later described. The lower portion of the side walls of the housing is provided with substantially arch-shaped openings I2 through which air is admitted into the housing, the inlet openings I2 being preferably covered by screens I3, as clearly shown in the drawings.

Extending across the interior of the housing between the side walls 5 and 3, in spaced relation with the wall 3, is an angle I4, having its ends welded to the inturned flanges of the angles I that extend along the side walls 5 and 6. The angle I 4 cooperates with the angle I extending along the lower edge of the side Wall 3, to support a motor carrying bracket I5. The motor carrying bracket includes spaced uprights I6 and I1, having their lower ends welded or otherwise secured to the flanges of the angle I4, and which have their upper ends braced from the cooperating angle I by brace arms I8. Fixed to the uprights I6 and I! is an electric motor I9, having a vertically arranged armature shaft 20, carrying a propeller type fan 2I for drawing air through the openings I2 and discharging it under substantial pressure throughthe opening II.

Supported above the fan 2i, and below the opening II on angles 22 and 23 is a radiator unit 24, the angles 22 and 23 being secured to the inner faces of the side walls 3 and 4 so that the ends of inlet and outlet manifolds 25 and 26 are supported thereon and retained by the inwardly extending flanges of the angles 8, as clearly shown in Fig. 3. The radiator also includes a plurality of transverse tubes 21 interconnecting the respective manifolds so that a heating medium, such as steam, is circulated therethrough to heat the air blast discharged by the fan. The tubes 27 are preferably arranged in horizontal rows with the tubes in one row in staggered relation with the tubes in the other row, so that the air is directed against and across the sides of all of the respective tubes.

In order to increase the radiating capacity of the tubes and the contact surface thereof with the air, the tubes are provided with spaced series of fins 28 as in conventional radiator construction. Steam is admitted to the radiator through a pipe 29, extending through the side wall 6 and welded into a suitable opening of the manifold 25 and the steam and condensate are discharged from the radiator by way of the manifold 26 through an L-fitting 39 having connection with a return line 3i that extends across the housing below the radiator and passes through a flanged opening 32 in the side wall 6.

Fixed to one corner of the housing is a sleevelike bearing 33 having its upper end substantially aligning with the upper surface of the plate it for journalling a pin 34 that mounts the garment carrier or turntable 35.

The carrier 35 includes an elongated angleframe 38 that conforms in width to thehousing and is of substantially twice the length thereof to accommodate a pair of air directing nozzles 31 and 38 which are alternately movable over the opening H as later described. The frame 36 is covered by a plate 39 having openings 40 and 4! therein conforming in diameter to the opening H. In order to reinforce the carrier, the frame also includes angle-iron diagonals 42 and 43 extending across the openings 4t and 4% and having their ends welded to the angle-iron frame as clearly shown in Fig. 5. The nozzles 31 and 38 are of substantially frustrc-conical form and have their base portions welded to the plate 39 about the peripheries of the openings ii! so that the air discharged through the openings ll into one of the nozzles is directed upwardly into a garment that is supported over cage-like guards 4 and 45.

The guards 44 and 45 are of dome-shape and include circumferential wires 45 of varying diameter and are connected by transverse wires ll converging upwardly toward an apex 58. The lower circumferential wire substantially conforms to the inner diameter of the nozzles so that it is sleeved therein for attachment by suitable clips 29, as best shown in Fig. 8. Located about the peripheries of the nozzles are garment clamps 55 comprising arms 51 having their lower portions connected with the nozzles by hinges 52 that are spaced upwardly from the terminal ends thereof so as to provide stops 53 for limiting retractive movement of the clamps. The upper ends of the arms terminate in laterally extending clamping portions 54 having arcuate edges 55 covered with rubber or similar gripping material 56 to cooperate with similar gripping strips 57 that are attached to plates 58 carried by the transverse wires 41 of the guards. eral portions 54 of the arms are coil springs 59 having their lower ends anchored to the nozzles, as at 63, on the inner sides of the hinging points of the hinges whereby action of the springs exerts clamping pressure of the gripping strips 55 relatively to the strips 51 to clamp the skirt portion of a garment therebetween. The lateral portions of the clamps also carry knobs 3! by which the clamps may be moved retractively away from the clamping strips so that the spring 59 moves across vertical dead center to the opposite side of the hinging points of the hinges to hold the clamps in retracted position as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. '7.

One or more of the upper circumferential wires of the guard may be provided with clothes pins 82 that are secured by clips 53 as best shown in Fig. 9. The clothes pins 62 are adapted to engage garments having skirt portions which are Connected with the lattoo small to be extended about the lower periphery of the guards.

The pin 34 is fixed in a lug 64 extending from one side of the frame 36, and has a depending portion 34 journaled in the bearing 33 so that the lug 64 is supported for rotation on the upper end of the bearing. The opposite end of the pin projects above the lug 64 and sleeved thereover is the lower end of a tubular post 65 carrying a rod 66 having laterally extending arms 61 and '58 terminating over the axis of the nozzles in hooks 69 and 10 carrying depending chains 'II and 12 for adjustably attaching the hooks 13 of garment supporting hangers T4. The frame of the garment carrier is provided with stops 15 and 76 on the respective sides of the pivot pin to engage the housing and stop movement of the carrier when one or the other nozzles align with the openings I.

In using a drier constructed and assembled as described, a garment, for example a coat, is applied to a hanger and the hook of the hanger engaged with the chain ll so that the skirt portion of the coat overlaps the guards and is stretched downwardly thereover and over the sides of the nozzle in such a position that the clamping members 50 will cooperate with the clamping strips 51' to grip the garment when the clamping members are moved into clamping engagement therewith. When the clamping members are moved to clamping position the springs move across dead center and exert suflicient pressure to hold them in clamping position against pull of the garment. Steam having been turned into the radiator, the motor is started to blow air across the tubes of the radiator and through the nozzle into the garment, thereby distending and shaping the garment as shown in Fig. 1.

During drying of the coat, a dress or the like may be applied in similar manner to the other nozzle, as shown in Fig. 1. When the coat is dry, the carrier is swung on its pivot so that the dress is brought over the opening II and the heated air is discharged into the dress. The coat is then removed and another garment applied while the dress is being dried. When the dress is dried the movement of the carrier is reversed to move the dried dress out of position and the undried garment into position for drying, thus providing for continuous operation of the drier so that it is not necessary to stop the motor during application of a garment. Attention is directed to the fact that no time is lost by the operator in waiting for a garment to dry. By the time he has applied a garment to one side of the carrier, the garment on the opposite side is dried and ready for removal upon swinging the carrier so that the dry garment is swung out of drying position and the wet garment into drying position.

From the foregoing it is apparent that I have provided a simple and relatively inexpensive drier which is of continuous operation and well adapted for use of dry cleaners, laundries, and other places where it is necessary to dry and partially finish garments of the character described.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A drier of the character described including a housing having an air outlet opening in the top thereof, a radiator supported in the housing in covering relation with said opening, a fan supported in the housing for effecting discharge of air through the radiator and through said opening, a garment carrier having a plurality of air directing nozzles, and means oscillatably mounting the garment carrier on the housin including a spindle member and a bearing member, one of said members being fixed to the garment carrier and oifset laterally from a plane passing through the axes of both of said nozzles and the other substantially supported in the plane of the side wall of the housing whereby the garment carrier is adapted to be completely offset from said air outlet opening in one position of the garment carrier and whereby one of said nozzles is moved from over said outlet opening and the other moved away from said air outlet opening in another position of the carrier.

2. A drier of the character described including a substantially rectangular housing having an opening in the top thereof, a radiator covering the opening, a fan in the housing for moving heated air through the opening, a garment carrier including a substantially rectangular member having a width to cover the housing and a length to accommodate a pair of nozzles substantially the size of said opening, and means oscillating the garment carrier on the housing including a spindle member and a bearing member, one of said members being mounted at a corner of the housing and the other at a side of the rectangular member in a plane passing midway between said nozzles whereby said nozzles may be selectively moved over the outlet opening and tially rectangular frame, diagonal brace members extending across said frame, a cover on the frame having a nozzle adapted to register with the air outlet opening in the housing, and means pivotally mounting said frame to the corner of said housing at the juncture point of one of the diagonal brace members with the frame.

4. In a drier of the character described including a substantially rectangular housing having an opening in the top thereof, a garment carrier including an elongated rectangular frame, a transverse member dividing the frame into sections substantially conforming to the size and shape of the housing, diagonals connecting the corners of said sections, a cover for the frame having openings substantially concentric with crossing points of said diagonals, and means pivotally connecting a side of the frame at the end of the transverse member with a corner of said housing whereby either one or the other of the openings in the garment carrier is adapted to align with the outlet opening of the housing.

5. A drier of the character described including, a housing having an air outlet opening in the top thereof, a sleeve-like bearing carried by the housing in offset relation to said opening, a garment carrier including a frame having nozzles adapted to be alternately registered with said opening in the housing, a pin carried by one side of the frame and swivelly mounted in said sleevelike bearing, and a garment supporting post engaged over said pin.

WILLIAM C. GLOVER, JR. 

